The Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism was established in 1971 through the support of United States Ambassador Walter H. Annenberg.[3] The USC Department of Communication Arts and Sciences and the School of Journalism became part of USC Annenberg in 1994.

School of Communication:
The USC Annenberg School of Communication is the school's center for general communications. It offers degrees from undergraduate to doctorates. Its current director is Sarah Banet-Weiser, who took over from Larry Gross in 2014. It offers the following degrees: B.A. (communication), M.A. (global communication/global media, communication management, public diplomacy, strategic public relations, digital social media, communication data science), Ph.D. (communication).

School of Journalism
Annenberg's School of Journalism's director is Willow Bay, who joined in 2014. It offers the following degrees: Degrees offered: B.A. (journalism, public relations), M.A. (journalism, specialized journalism, strategic public relations).

The USC U.S.-China Institute: public discussion of the U.S.-China relationship through policy-relevant research, graduate and undergraduate training, and professional development programs for teachers, journalists, and officials. It produces public events, documentary films, and magazines. It was established in 2006 by USC President C.L. "Max" Nikias (then provost). In fall 2011, it became part of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism,

The USC Center on Public Diplomacy, in partnership with the USC College's School of International Relations: government, corporate and non-state actors engagement with foreign audiences. Includes the: U.S. Canada Fulbright Chair in Public Diplomacy

The Haptics Lab: integrating the sense of touch into human/computer interactions, is supported by the Integrated Media Systems Center, a National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center.

The Metamorphosis Project: the transformations of urban community under the forces of globalization, new communication technologies and population diversity.

The Norman Lear Cente: convergence of entertainment, commerce and society.

The Strategic Public Relations Center: the study, practice and value of public relations.

Students are active with USC's student-run newspaper, the Daily Trojan; USC Annenberg's online news publication, Neon Tommy; USC Annenberg's nightly television newscast, Annenberg TV News; its TV newsmagazine Impact; Radio show Annenberg Radio News; Community digital journalism news website focusing on South Los Angeles.
USC Annenberg is also home to student chapters of the Radio-Television News Directors Association and Public Relations Student Society of America. Students also run an in-house public relations agency that works with non-profit and small business clients.

Annenberg TV News airs Monday through Thursday at 6 p.m. on Trojan Vision. Students are responsible for reporting local, national and international news and producing the newscast live on air.

Resources include a fully digital three-camera broadcast studio, a television newsroom, a digital lab equipped with Adobe Premiere nonlinear video editing systems, four computer classrooms and the Experiential Learning Center. Fourteen classrooms feature multimedia display capabilities. Professional media and research software applications are installed on more than 200 computers available for student use.

USC Annenberg offers study-abroad opportunities for undergraduate students in Amsterdam, Auckland, Buenos Aires, Christchurch, Hong Kong, London, Singapore and Sydney. Graduate journalism and public relations students may complete summer internships in Cape Town, Hong Kong and London, and public diplomacy students have the opportunity to complete summer internships abroad. USC Annenberg offers a joint MA/MSc graduate degree program in global communication with the London School of Economics & Political Science.